In the 21st century, the world is wired. From Berlin to Brooklyn, Baghdad to Boise, the Internet has become the world's dominant mode of communication.
Developing a Winning Website
In many ways, the organization's website is its most important interface with the public. Today, journalists and others turn to the website first for an introduction to the organization.
The aim of any website is to provide information that visitors are looking for. The more you achieve that objective, the more "sticky" your site becomes. Stickiness is often measured by the amount of time visitors spend at a site and how many pages they view. For example, if visitors spend ten minutes at the website and view five or more pages, you've achieved stickiness.
How should you create a winning website? By first asking and answering several strategic questions.
What is our goal? To extend the business? Sell more products? Make more money,? Win support for our position? Turn around public opinion? Introduce our company? Without the answers to these fundamental questions, the what and how of a website are inconsequential. Just as in any other pursuit in public relations, the overriding goal must be established first.
What content will we include? The reason some websites are tedious and boring is because little forethought has gone into determining the content of a site. Simply cramming chronological news releases on to a website will not advance an organization standing with its publics. Rather, content must be carefully considered, in substance and organization, before proceeding with a site.
How often will we edit? Often the answer to this question is, Not often enough. Stale news and the lack of updating are common website problems. Sites must regularly be updated. Another problem is overwriting. People seem to feel that because the web is free, they can write endlessly. Of course, they can. But no one will read it. So an editorial process to cull information down to its most essential parts is a necessity for a good website.
How will we enhance design? Like it or not, the style of the site is most important. If an organization's homepage isn't attractive, it will not get any hits. Good design makes complicated things understandable, and this is essential in a website. The web is a largely visual medium, so great care should be taken to professionally design a site.
How a interactive will it be? Traditional communication is unidirectional, one way. You read or view it, and that's where the process stops. The great attraction of the Web, on the other hand, is that it can be bi-directional. Communication can be translated into an interactive vehicle, a game, an application, or an email chat vehicle. This is what distinguishes good sites from mediocre ones.
How will we track use? As in any other communications project, the use of a website must be measured. The most basic form of cyberspace measurement is the rough yardstick of hits to the site. But like measuring press clippings, this does not tell you whether your information is being appreciated, acted on, or even read. Measuring site performance, therefore, should be a multifaceted exercise that includes such analysis as volume during specific times of day, kind of access, specific locations on the site to which visitors are clicking first, and the sequencing through the site that visitors are following.
Who will be responsible? Managing a website, if it is done correctly, must be someone's full-time job. The Web site must be treated as a first line of communication to the public which requires full-time attention.
As a consequence, blogs are starting to feel their oats, in terms of communications power.
There are two categories of blogs. One is the traditional Weblog in which a Web Surfer shares his online discoveries. The second is the Web diary in which a person shares his or her thoughts of the day. Often, blogs of one style have elements of the other. A diarist might discuss a link, while traditional web loggers commonly ramble on about something that happened to them that day.
In terms of public relations use of blogs, organizations can use them to deliver information---product uses, sales data, consumer tips, and so on---in a more personal way. Organization blogs, like direct mail, might also serve to interest potential customers in a firm's expertise. Readership can be expanded through registering on the growing number of blog search engines.
Public relations people should also monitor any blogs in a company or industry that are deemed influential. Often these are negative blogs. In the case of Walmart, for example, public relations professionals need to regularly monitor anti-company blogs, such as alwayslowprices.net and laborblog, to find out the latest hot issues among the company's critics.
Blogs also can be useful as an internal communications vehicle. Among possibilities for internal blogs are the following:
Projects: Project leaders can maintain blogs to announce project status and development.
Departments: Departments can maintain blogs to inform the rest of the organization about offerings and achievements.
Brainstorming: Employees in a department or on a team can brainstorm about strategy, process, and ideas on their own blog.
Customers: Employees can share with others internally the substance of customer visits or phone calls.
Predictably, another outgrowth of the spread of blogs is the existence of spam blogs, or just plain "splogs," or phony blogs designed to promote everything from gambling websites to pornography. A typical splog contains gibberish and is full of links to other websites it is trying to promote. Because search engines, like Google and Yahoo!, base their rankings on how many other websites linked to a particular site, the splogs can help artificially inflate a site popularity.
Although only in their infancy, there is no question that blogs are being woven into the culture and fabric of public relations as a method of building consumer loyalty, as a target of pitches, and even as a sardonic watchdog for the public relations industry. With companies from Microsoft to General Electric to Cingular Wireless adopting blogs to promote products and services, the use of blogs as a communication vehicle will only increase.
Dealing with the Media Online
In the 21st century, the Internet has become the favorite tool of reporters for discovering organizational information.
Research indicates that journalist now overwhelmingly rank corporate websites as their most important source of financial information, so reaching reporters online has become a front-line responsibility for public relations professionals.
The basics of online media relations include the following:
Website newsroom: The best organizations create extranets, developed exclusively to serving the media, as derivatives of their websites. These corporate newsrooms include all the traditional press materials that the media require.
News releases: Every website begins with news releases, most often organized chronologically. However, journalists complain that they don't know precisely when an organization raised its prices or announced its earnings or promoted its president. Therefore, the best Web newsrooms organize releases both chronologically and by subject, with a search engine capable of pointing readers towards specific subjects.
Executive speeches: All major speeches delivered by management should be included at the corporate newsroom site. The best sites offer an interactive speech feature through which speeches are automatically emailed to journalists or others who request it.
Annual/quarterly reports: Every public company is obligated to report earnings to shareholders four times a year and typically issue three quarterly reports and one annual report. Quarterlies and annuals should appear on the corporate newsroom site.
Meetings: Companies in remote locations, in particular, have begun to Webcast their annual gathering of shareholders so that those unable to attend in person may do so electronically.
FAQs: The most frequently asked questions posed by reporters ought to be part of the newsroom site. Also, FAQs ought to maintain the most basic corporate information, from number of offices and employees to headquarters location and stock symbol.
Interviews: Online press conferences and Webcasts have also become standard fare, with a company notifying journalists of the time and password necessary to access a particular executive presiding as an online interviewee.
Digital press kits: All the material included in a corporate press kit---releases, photos, backgrounders---are duplicated on the internet for downloading purposes to journalists.
Photographs, profiles, ad copy, and so on: Online executive photographs and other relevant photographs are standard at corporate newsroom sites. So, too, are executive biographical profiles. Corporate newsrooms might even offer video versions of corporate advertising. Finally, reporters appreciate ease of access to locate the pressroom and its elements, after hours contact numbers clearly listed, and downloadable logos for ready use.
News release via newswires: It has become is essential for public relations companies to issue news releases over Newswires. Why? Newswire copy gets picked up by online databases, such as AOL and Yahoo! if a company wants its shareholders and potential investors to know of its activities, in order to notify them online, it's releases must be included on newswires. Newswires are of three types:
General wires: the Associated Press (AP) is the granddaddy of all general wire services, reporting on general news of interest to the broad society. United Press International (UPI), that used to compete directly with AP, fell into financial ill-health starting with cutbacks in 1982 and the 1999 sale of its broadcast client list to AP, has diminished as a news factory, but still survives by concentrating on smaller niche markets.
Financial wires: Dow Jones, the Wire service of the Wall Street Journal, is perhaps the most well-known financial wire. Reuters is known as the International Financial wire. Bloomberg, the creation of a former Wall Street broker turned New York city mayor, has emerged as another powerful financial wire service force in both print and broadcast.
Fixed wires: As opposed to general and financial wires, other wire services---the most prominent being PR Newswire, Business Wire, and Market Wire---are paid services that reproduce organizational news announcements verbatim, for a fee.
All of these wire Services report Online, which beans that releases are automatically filed on online stock databases. This allows online users to track a specific company announcements and is one reason why most publicly held companies today release via wire.
Online publicity. Online publications---e-zines---such as Salon and Slate, and online special interest sites, such as oxygen.com and ivillage.com designed for women, and seniornet.org for senior citizens, and so on, offer opportunities for publicity. Financial news services, such as fool.com, the street.com, and CBSMarketWatch.com, are also ready outlets for publicity.
*SOURCE: THE PRACTICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS, 10TH ED., 2007, FRASER P. SEITEL, PGS. 383-389*
Using celebrities as a spokesperson, inserting product placement in movies, sponsoring concerts, and a host of other publicity-seeking techniques are examples of integrated marketing communications---the intersection of public relations and publicity, advertising, sales promotion, and marketing to promote organizations, products, and services.
Those who decry the fall of advertising and the rise of PR are a bit overzealous. Advertising is not dead yet. Neither is marketing. But it is true that public relation and publicity integrated with these other disciplines are very much the rule in many organizations today.
Therefore, the need for communications cross-training---to learn the different skills of marketing, advertising, sales promotion, and public relations---becomes a requirement for all communicators.
Public Relations vs. Marketing vs. Advertising
What is the difference between marketing, advertising, and public relations?
Marketing, literally defined, is the selling of a service or product through pricing, distribution, and promotion. Marketing ranges from Concepts such as free samples in the hands of consumers to buzz campaigns.
Advertising, literally defined, is a subset of marketing that involves paying to place your message in more traditional media formats, from newspapers and magazines to radio and television to the internet and outdoors.
Public relations, literally defined, is the marketing of an organization and the use of unbiased, objective, third party endorsement to relay information about that organization's products and practices.
With so many media outlets bombarding consumers daily, most organizations realize that public relations can play an expanded role in marketing. In some organizations, particularly service companies, hospitals, and non-profit institutions, the selling of both individual products and the organization itself are inextricably intertwined.
Stated another way, although the practices of marketing and advertising create a market for products and services and the practice of public relations creates a hospitable environment in which the organization may operate, marketing and advertising success can be nullified by the social and the political forces public relations is designed to confront and, thus, the interrelationship of the three disciplines.
In the past, marketers treated public relations as an ancillary part of the marketing mix. They were concerned primarily with making sure that their products met the needs and desires of customers and were priced competitively, distributed widely, and promoted heavily through advertising and merchandising. Gradually, however, these traditional notions among the marketers began to change for several reasons.
Consumer protests about both product of value and safety and government scrutiny of the truth behind product claims began to shake historical views of marketing.
Product recalls from automobiles to tuna fish generated recurring headlines.
Ingredient scares began to occur regularly.
Advertisers were asked how their products answered social needs and civic responsibilities.
Rumors about particular companies---from fast food firms to pop rock manufacturers---spread in brushfire manner.
General image problems of certain companies and industries---from oil to banking---were fanned by a continuous blaze of media criticism.
The net impact of these challenges was that even though a company's products were still important, customers begin to consider a firm's policies and practices on everything from air and water pollution to minority hiring. Beyond these social concerns, the effectiveness of advertising itself began to be questioned.
The increased number of advertisements in newspapers and on the airwaves caused clutter and placed a significant burden on advertisers who were trying to make the public aware of their products. In the 1980's, the trend toward shorter television advertising spots contributed two to three times as many products being advertised on television as there were in the 1970s. and the 1990s, the spread of cable television added yet another multi-channeled outlet for product advertising. In the 21st century, the proliferation of Internet advertising has intensified the noise and clutter. Against this backdrop, the potential of public relations as an added ingredient in the marketing mix has become an imperative. Indeed, marketing guru Philip Kotler was among the first to suggest more than a decade ago that the traditional four P's of marketing---product, price, place, and promotion---a fifth P, public relations, should be added.
In the 21st century, Kotler's suggestion has increasingly become reality.
Product Publicity
To many, product publicity is the essence of the value of integrating public relations and marketing. In light of how difficult it now is to raise advertising awareness above the noise of so many competitive messages, marketers are turning increasingly to product of publicity as an important adjunct to advertising. Although the public is generally unaware of it, a great deal of what it knows and believes about a wide variety of products comes through press coverage.
In certain circumstances, product publicity can be the most effective element in the marketing mix. For example:
Introducing a revolutionary new product. Product publicity can start introductory sales at a much higher level of demand by creating more awareness of the product.
Eliminating distribution problems with retail outlets. Often the way to get shelf space is to have consumers demand that the product. Publicity can be extremely effective in creating consumer demand.
Small budgets and strong competition. Advertising is expensive. Product publicity is cheap. Often publicity is the best way to tell the story. Samuel Adams Boston Lager Beer, for example, became a household word almost solely through publicity opportunities.
Explaining a complicated product. The use and benefits of many products are difficult to explain to mass audiences in a brief ad. Product publicity, through extended news columns, can be invaluable.
Generating new consumer excitement for an old a product. Repackaging an old product for the media can serve as a primary marketing impetus.
Tying the product to a unique representative. Try as it might, the advertising industry cannot escape the staying power of unique mascots who become tied inextricably to products. Consider the following:
Morris the Cat was one answer to consumer disinterest in cat food for the 9 Lives Cat Food Company in 1968 and still appears today.
The Jolly Green Giant has been around so long at General Mills that he now has his own Green Giant Food Company and website.
Burger King's King can be seen cavorting on baseball fields and in other venues.
But the real "king" is McDonald's standard bearer, Ronald McDonald, who first appeared in 1963 and has since starred on national television, at Academy Awards ceremonies, and around the world. No other iconic figure in history has become more synonymous with any company (Figure 1).
Creating an identity. Many organizations cannot afford to blast out expensive advertising but must be heard above the din of thousands of competitors. And no organization has proven better at it than the home of the megalomaniac chihuahua, Taco Bell.
FIGURE 1 The king. Maybe not of "burgers" but certainly of corporate icons.
Third Party Endorsement
Perhaps more than anything else, the leader of third party endorsement is the primary reason smart organizations value product publicity as much as they do advertising. Third party endorsement, as noted, refers to the support given a product buy a newspaper, magazine, or broadcaster who mentions the product as news. Advertising often is perceived as self-serving. People know that the advertiser not only created the message but also paid for it. Publicity, on the other hand, which appears in news columns, carries no such stigma. Editors, after all, are considered objective, impartial, indifferent, neutral. Therefore, publicity appears to be news and is more trustworthy than advertising that is paid for by a clearly non-objective sponsor.
Editor's have become sensitive to mentioning product names in print. Some, in fact, have a policy of deleting brand or company identifications in news columns. Public relations counselors argue that discriminating against using product names does a disservice to readers or viewers, many of whom are influenced by what they read or see and may desire the particular products discussed. Counselors further argue that journalists who accept and print public relations material for its intrinsic value and then remove the source of the information give the reader or viewer the false impression that the journalist generated the facts, ideas, or photography.
Building a Brand
The watchword in business today is branding, creating a unique Identity or position for a company or product.
In more traditional times, it took years for brands like Pepsi, Coke, McDonald's, Hertz, FedEx, and Walmart to establish themselves. Today with the advent of the World Wide Web, thriving internet companies like Google, Yahoo!, Amazon.com, eBay, and AOL have become household words in a historical nanosecond. Using integrated marketing communications to establish a unique brand requires adherence to the following principles.
Be early. It is better to be first than to be best. Don't believe it? then who was the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic? No, it wasn't Charles Lindbergh flying back! (actually, it was an Australian named Bert Hinkler but nobody remembers him) We remember the first in a category because of the lawofprimacy, which posits that people are more likely to remember you if you were the first in their minds in a particular category. Whether yours is really the "first" brand is less important than establishing primacy in the minds of consumers.
Be memorable. Equally important is to fight through the chatter by creating a memorable brand. With hundreds of participants in categories from bottled water to bathing suits, a brand needs to stand out by distinguishing itself in some way---through uniqueness or advertising slogan or social responsibility or whatever. Creating brand awareness requires boldness.
Be aggressive. A successful brand also requires a constant drumbeat of publicity to keep the company name before the public. Potential customers need to become familiar with the brand. Potential investors need to become confident that the brand is an active one. Indeed, more and more, marketers are taking to the streets to spread their messages (Figure 2). the new competitive economy leaves little room for demure integrated marketing communications.
Use heritage. Baby boomers and Gen Xers are old. And heritage is very much in vogue. This means citing the traditions and history of a product or organization as part of building the brand. As consumers live longer, an increasing number of citizens long for the "good old days." As society longs for nostalgia, heritage works.
Create a personality. The best organizations are those that create personalities for themselves. Who is number one in rental cars? Hertz. What company stands for overnight delivery? FedEx. What's the East Coast University that boasts the best and the brightest? Harvard. Or at least that's what most people think. The firm's personality should be reflected and all Communications materials the organization produces.
FIGURE 2 Street Cred. Friendly Ice Cream Corporation took to the streets with free samples in an effort to reinforce brand recognition.
As more and more companies each year attempt to bust through the advertising and marketing clutter by resorting to such marketing devices as banner ads, proprietary Web sites, free classified advertising, e-zines and email marketing, the challenge to create a unique brand becomes that much more difficult.
*SOURCE: THE PRACTICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS, 10TH ED., 2007, FRASER P. SEITEL, PGS. 357-364*
In the 21st century, serving one's community once again makes good business sense. The importance of being responsible to diverse, multicultural communities has, in fact, become a front-burner business mandate.
Today's society is increasingly multicultural. America has always been a melting pot, attracting freedom-seeking immigrants from countries throughout the world. Never has this been more true than today, as America's face continues to change.
Such is the multicultural diversity found today by America and the world. The implications for organizations are profound.
As the arbiters of communications and their organizations, public relations people must be sensitive to society's new multicultural realities. This is a particular challenge with respect to an increasingly disenfranchised Muslim community. Dealing in an enlightened manner with multicultural diversity and being sensitive to nuances in language and differences in style are logical extensions of the social responsibility that has been an accepted part of American organizational life since the 1960s.
Community Social Responsibility
In light of the increasing diversity of U.S. society, both profit and non-profit organizations must become more diverse as well and must learn to deal and communicate with those who differ in work background, education, age, gender, race, ethnic origin, physical abilities, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and other perceived differences. It is important for organizations to build a reservoir of goodwill among all residents within their host communities.
More and more, organizations acknowledge their responsibilities to the community: helping to maintain clean air and water, providing jobs for minorities, enforcing policies in the interests of all employees, and, in general, enhance everyone's quality of life. This concept of social responsibility has become widely accepted among enlightened organizations.
For example, most companies today donate a percentage of their profits to nonprofit organizations---schools, hospitals, social welfare institutions, and others.
Corporate philanthropy and social responsibility have historically been uniquely American concepts. U.S. firms feel an obligation to support thousands of community-based groups working to expand affordable housing, create economic opportunity, improve public schools, and protect the environment.
Increasingly, corporate leaders---long absent from the public dialogue on community issues---have begun again to take an active stance in confronting societal challenges.
Another element of “ giving back to the community” is volunteerism. Many firms, which have given generously to their communities, have become more directly involved by actively encouraging executives and employees to roll up their sleeves and volunteer to help out in their communities.
Such initiatives reject the oft-quoted notion of University of Chicago economics professor Milton Friedman that a corporation's only responsibility is to make money and sell products so that people can be hired and paid. It is the job of the individual, not the company, Friedman argued, to serve society through philanthropy. Most companies today flatly reject the Friedman argument. They understand that in the 21st century an organization must be a citizen of the community in every respect and accept its role as an agent for social change in the community.
Community Relations Expectations
For an organization to coexist peacefully in its community, three skills in particular are required: (1) determining what the community knows and thinks about the organization, (2) informing the community of the organization's point of view, and (3) negotiating or mediating between the organization and the community and its constituents should there be a significant discrepancy.
Basically, every organization wants to foster positive reactions in its community. This becomes increasingly difficult in the face of protests from and disagreements with community activists. Community relations, therefore---to analyze the community, help understand it's makeup and expectations, and communicate the organization's story in an understandable and uninterrupted way---are critical.
The community of an organization can vary widely, depending on the size and nature of the business. The 7-Eleven convenience store may have a community of only a few city blocks, the community of a Buick assembly plant may be the city where the plant is located, and the community of a multinational corporation may embrace much of the world.
What the Community Expects
Communities expect from resident organizations such tangible commodities as wages, employment, and taxes. But communities have come to expect intangible contributions too:
Appearance. The community hopes that the firm will contribute positively to life in the area. It expects facilities to be attractive, with care spent on the grounds and structures. Increasingly, community neighbors object to plants that belch smoke and pollute water and air. Occasionally, neighbors organize to oppose the entrance of factories, coal mines, oil wells, drug treatment centers, and other facilities suspected of being harmful to the community's environment. NIMBY, "not in my backyard," is their rallying cry.
Participation. As a citizen of the community, an organization is expected to participate responsibly in community affairs, such as civic functions, park and recreational activities, education, welfare, and support of religious institutions.
Stability. A business that fluctuates sharply in volume of business, number of employees, and taxes paid can adversely affect the community through its impact on municipal services, school loads, public facilities, and tax revenues. Communities prefer stable organizations that will grow with the area. Conversely, they want to keep out short-term operations that could create temporary boom conditions and leave ghost towns in their wake.
Pride. Any organization that can help put the community on the map simply by being there is usually a valuable addition. Communities want firms that are proud to be residents. For instance, to most Americans, Battle Creek, Michigan, means cereal; Armonk, New York, means IBM; and Hershey, Pennsylvania, means chocolate. That is why the residents of Hershey were fearful when, in 2002, Nestle USA offered to buy the pride of Hershey for $11.5 billion. Organizations that help build the town generally become revered symbols of pride.
What the Organization Expects
Organizations, in turn, expect to be provided with adequate municipal services, fair taxation, good living conditions for employees, a good labor supply, and a reasonable degree of support for the business and its products. When some of these ingredients are missing, organizations may move to communities where such benefits are more readily available.
The great inner-city exodus of the 1970s is a case in point. New York city experienced a substantial exodus of corporations when firms fled to neighboring Connecticut and New Jersey, as well as to the Sun Belt states of the Southeast and Southwest. New York's state and city legislatures responded to the challenge by working more closely with business residents on such issues as corporate taxation. By the new century, not only had the corporate flight to the Sun Belt been arrested, but with business-oriented billionaire Michael Bloomberg as mayor, many firms reconsidered the Big Apple and returned to the now more business-friendly city and state.
The issue for most urban areas faced with steadily eroding tax bases is to find a formula that meets the concerns of business corporations while accommodating the needs of other members of the community.
*THE PRACTICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS, 10TH ED., 2007, FRASER P. SEITEL, 243-248*
